Investigating the impact cognitive stress on heartbeat-evoked potentials and respiratory modulations

Abstract: This study will investigate sensorimotor and respiratory synchronization abilities in schizophrenic and healthy subjects to elucidate their impact on social interactions. It will include 46 participants, equally divided between groups. The study will involve two primary tasks: a sensorimotor synchronization task where individuals will tap in accordance with a visually presented stimulus, and a respiratory synchronization task with a visual breathing signal. Both tasks will be conducted under conditions of high and low stimulus predictability. Additionally, the tasks will be performed under two social bias conditions: one where participants believe they are interacting with someone from their own group and one with the opposite group. Synchronization performance will be assessed in the sensorimotor task by measuring the time intervals between consecutive finger taps and the asynchronies, which are the mismatches between the initiation of each tap and the onset of the corresponding visual stimulus; in the respiratory task, through indices such as phase-locking, relative phase, and the percentage of in-phase occurrence. By exploring these dynamics, the study aims to expand the understanding of how schizophrenia affects interpersonal connections and the extent to which social perceptions modulate synchronization abilities. This research will highlight significant challenges in social interactions for individuals with schizophrenia, contributing to the discourse on epistemic injustice.